The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday said custodial violence and death is a “blot “on the system, and the country will not tolerate this. While hearing a suo motu case concerning the lack of functional CCTVs in police stations, a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta referred to its order passed in the matter and said 11 deaths were reported in police custody in eight months in Rajasthan. “Now this country will not tolerate this. This is a blot on the system. You can’t have deaths in custody,” the bench said.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said nobody can even justify or attempt to justify custodial deaths. The bench also questioned the Centre as to why it has not filed a compliance affidavit in the matter. “The Union is taking this court very lightly. Why?” Justice Nath asked. Mehta said he was not appearing in the suo motu matter but nobody can take the court lightly. He said the Centre would file the compliance affidavit within three weeks.
In September, the apex court had taken suo motu cognisance of a media report which stated that 11 lives were lost in police custody in Rajasthan in the first eight months of 2025, of which seven incidents occurred in the Udaipur division. In a separate matter, the apex court had in 2018 ordered the installation of CCTV cameras in police stations to check human rights abuses.
During the hearing on Tuesday, the bench also heard the submissions of senior advocate Siddhartha Dave, who is assisting the apex court as an amicus curiae in a separate matter in which the top court had passed an order in December 2020. In that order, the top court had directed the Centre to install CCTV cameras and recording equipment at the offices of investigating agencies, including the CBI, the Enforcement Directorate and the National Investigation Agency.
Dave told the bench on Tuesday that he has filed a report in the case in which an order was passed in December 2020. “On the last date, we had made certain specific queries from all the states and Union Territories (UTs). Have they responded?” the bench asked. The bench was informed that in the suo motu case, only 11 States have filed their compliance affidavits.
Dave said in the earlier case also, many of the states have not filed their compliance affidavits.
The bench observed that Madhya Pradesh has given a positive response and each police station and outpost in the State is connected to a centralised work station at the district control room. “That is something remarkable,” the bench said. Dave said CCTVs were installed in three central probe agencies but the other three are yet to comply with the apex court’s direction.
Dave flagged that there was no budgetary allocation done for the installation of CCTVs for three central agencies. “We find that only 11 states have filed their compliance affidavits in the suo motu writ petition. The remaining states and Union territories have not filed their compliance affidavits which include the Union of India also,” the bench noted in its order. It granted three weeks' time to the States and UTs, which have not yet filed their compliance affidavits, to do so and posted the matter for hearing on December 16.
